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People's Voting Behavior in Local Election: a Study on Annadanagar

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People's Voting Behavior in Local Election: a Study on Annadanagar IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 22, Issue 3, Ver. I (March. 2017) PP 01-14 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org People’s Voting Behavior In Local Election: A Study On Annadanagar Union Parishad , Pirgachha , Rangpur. 1(Md. Kazi Rezuan Hossain, 2(Most. Munmun Aktar,3(Md. Shariful Islam, 1(Lecturer, Department Of Political Science, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur , Bangladesh, 2(MSS Research Student, Department Of Political Science, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, Bangladesh 3(Assistant Professor, Department Of Political Science,Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, Bangladesh, ABSTRACT:- Voting is the main form of political participation in democratic societies and the study of voting behavior is a highly specialized sub-field in political and social science. The study was concerned with the reasons why people vote the way they do. The main objectives of the present study were to find out the factors why some citizens vote while others do not, comparing the voting behavior of the casting and non-casting voters and the influences of socio-economic and political determinants of voting behavior of the local people. That study has diagnosises the inner catalyst behind the changing trend of voting behavior in democratic form of local self-government in local area in Bangladesh. The changing pattern of voting behavior influenced by both political and non-political variables .Socio-economic factors also responsible for changing mode of voting behavior in rural election and also in case of national election, it also varies to casting voters and non-casting voters. Voting behavior has many determinants such as demographic factors like age, education, gender, and occupation etc. and. Socio- politico and economic factors such as, political ideology, party affiliation, candidates ‘qualification, family affiliation etc. which had strong effect on voting decisions ,this study specifically explored the relationship of voting behavior with the socio- politico and economic determinants. As survey area I have selected Annadanagar Union Pirgachcha,Rangpur which is a typical Union in Bangladesh which represents most of the Union of Bangladesh. To know about the voting behavior of the local people towards local elections a sample of 200 respondents were selected randomly from Annadanagar Union through multistage sampling technique. Mainly this study is qualitative but to make the study more explicit the quantitative method also used. And the interview was taken through open- ended and close-ended question. The findings of study have consistency with the set objectives. Keywords: Voting, Local-election, Voting Behavior, Casting Voter, Non-Casting Voter I. INTRODUCTION Voting is one of the most fundamental aspects of civic engagement. Many political scientists link voting with the vibrancy of the democratic process and argue that declining voting rates may be symptomatic of a "democratic deficit". Because political participation can also influence public policy, others are concerned that lower participation could result in policies that are not necessarily representative of key constituencies, like those who tend to vote less frequently. As a result, the voter turnout rate is used as one indicator of civic engagement. Voting is also the key mechanism of consensus building in a democratic society (Lipset: 1960). Voting behavior is a set of personal electoral activities, including participation in electoral campaigns, turnout at the polls, and choosing whom to vote outlines the comprehensiveness of the study of voting behavior(Bratton: 2013). In that light, attempts have been made to understand national voting behavior and various factors that influence voters in determining voter’s choice. Works have been done on the question of holding free and fair election system, factors that influence voter’s choices such as voter’s ethnic religious identity, voting simulation models, and voting pattern and trends. There are three kinds of voters; such as i) Regular Voter, who get involved in election-related activities and cast their vote regularly; ii) Intermittent Voters, who get involved in election-related activities and cast their vote but not as regularly as the regular voters do; and iii) Non-Casting Voters; who don’t get involved in election-related activities and don’t cast their vote. In local elections of Bangladesh, generally speaking, roughly more than 80% of the voters cast their votes and the rest tend not to cast their votes. This number (80%) is quite in tune with a working democracy. Nonetheless an enigma prevails and that is: Although voter turnout rate is good enough compared to national election why is it that some voters cast their votes while a section of the voters no matter how small or large that size might be. What are the factors that determine one large section of the voters to vote and what are the factors that discourage other section of the voters not to get engaged in electoral activities and turnout to vote? DOI: 10.9790/0837-2203010114 www.iosrjournals.org 1 | Page People’s Voting Behavior In Local Election: A Study On Annadanagar Union This study is a modest attempt to understand the factors that motivate some voters to get engaged in voting related activities and the factors that dissuade or discourage others-the not engaged voters-to engage themselves in voting related activities including voting in local elections. II. LITERATURE REVIEW Kamal Siddiqui (2000),discussed in his book on the evolution of local self- government, economic structure, administrative structure, identification of the problem and possible solution.Rounaq Jahan (1980), his book dealt with characteristics of Bangladesh`s election process political tradition and the impact of political parties on voting behavior of the people in national and local election. The author also discussed about the social, economic and hereditary influence and power of the personnel of the political party. But the author became failed to illuminate the causes of the voting and non-voting of the people in the local election. Nizam Ahamed (2000), focused on the local government in Bangladesh and widely emphasized on the role that’ should be played by the political leaders, activists, and administrative officers in the local government system in Bangladesh. In his book, he has dealt with the relationship between chairman and bureaucrats in conduct the activities of local government. But the author didn’t take into consider the importance of voting behavior of the people in the local area which actually has great effect on the local government system.M Abdul Wahab (1986),Focuses on the voting behavior of the local people such as how the people enter into politics and by whom etc. these issues are the highlights of this book. This book illustrated how the local people get involved in the politics by rich peasants, educated family, and village-lords.Shamsul Huda Harun (1986), in his book he discussed the first parliamentary election and Union Parishad election in Bangladesh which was held in 1973. Here the authors tried to examine the voting behavior of the people, the process of getting support of the political parties, the influence of the political leader on the voter, monopoly tendency of the political leader in the decision making process. Without these, party manifesto, election campaigning, meeting, seminar of the supporter, etc also get priority in this book. III. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The overall objective of the study is to examine the voting behavior of the local people in local elections in Bangladesh. Specifically the voting behavior of the people of Annadanagar Union, Pirgacha, Rangpur, has been examined in this research. The specific objectives of the research are:- i. To investigate the determinants that contribute to the voters decision either to cast vote or not to cast votes. ii. To compare the voting behavior of voters who cast their vote and non-casting voters. iii. To find out and analyze the influence of socio-demographic determinants such as ethnicity, gender, religion education age etc. and politico- psychological factors such as perception, security situation, local factors, party affiliation, ideological affiliation of candidates and voters, etc. in determining voters choices such as either to voter or whom to vote and whom not to. IV. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Election is the process of electing public representatives, receiving and giving public opinion through casting votes in ballot. Election is a prerequisite of democracy which plays a significant role in institutionalizing of democracy. Elections considers as the major political events of the political system which shape the political behavior.Voting behavior is a form of political behavior. Understanding voters behavior can explain how and why decisions were made either by public decision-makers, which has been a central concern for political scientists (Goldman: 1966). Through the voting behavior we can know the will of the people and the way they want to have it. The study of voting behavior related to learn about the nature of political system and provides information about the process of political system. Voting is the main form of political participation in a democratic society and its study in political science is highly specialized in the sub-fields (Cohen: 2003). The registered citizens are only eligible to cast their vote. Voting defined by Universal Declaration of Human Right as” Voting is the fundamental right of all citizens over
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